


dancing in the moonlight

by bethcaves



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: M/M, McGenji Week 2018, Post-Recall
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-13
Updated: 2018-08-13
Packaged: 2019-06-27 01:00:14
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,234
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15674841
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bethcaves/pseuds/bethcaves
Summary: Genji has a quiet moment after a misson. He could use it to rest...





	dancing in the moonlight

Years spent among omnic monks rendered standing in front of a mirror a bizarre experience. He sees himself, plain and tired, and barely recognizes the image. Barely feels anything in response to the unfamiliarity. It’s better than the detestation, he thinks, as he examines his sunken face. The layer of sweat that had formed under his helmet and made his skin crawl earlier is now gone, washed away and down the shower drain. He almost wants to pick on his skin, it’s an old habit in which he doesn’t indulge much anymore. Today was a hard day.

He used to be very aware of this bad habit. It was something he shouldn’t have been doing but did anyway. Since then it became extraordinary to catch himself doing it. Mostly on days like these, when he’s not entirely present in the moment. When he thinks about everything and nothing at once.

Some kids run through the corridors in youthful joy and bring him back to reality. He looks at the delusive ghostliness of his face for the last time and gives up on the day. A deep breath, his chest rises and he minds his posture when he exhales.

It’s his goodbye to the leisure evening bathroom time. The bedroom had the same soft lighting, except the beige tiles in here make him swim in sunset colours, just as the yellow light bulbs and white paint make him feel like he’s taking a siesta on a vacation to some sleepy town by the sea that comes to life only with tourists whose shrieks from the street below lull him into sleep. Missing his childhood still seems inadequate. He steps out, at last.

The balcony door is open and evening breeze moves the curtains to make them look ghostly. The soothing air hits his face and he sighs after the humidity of the bathroom.

Jesse, lounging on a single bed, basks in the afterglow of a successful mission. He even manages to look energized while browsing through channels on the crappy TV. Genji finds it both endearing and peculiar. If only he could share the feeling. Today felt like opposite day

Jesse is looking at him incredulously from his spot on the bed now. He looks like he might sink into the plush bedding, as if it were to swallow him whole, but he wouldn’t have minded if it meant he’d get some rest for his aching limbs. Genji starts to feel his age weigh down on his limbs. 

They walk on eggshells, not comfortable with each other, their new home, the past… the future.

Jesse’s eyes still bear into him. Then again Genji has been lost in his thoughts and anxieties, to Jesse it it probably looks odd. Standoffish at best, judgmental at worst. Jesse, despite the awkwardness, reaches for him with his arm as he swings his legs off the bed, waiting for Genji to come if he chooses to.

‘What’s wrong?’ Genji sighs and steps closer.

‘Nothing is wrong. My thoughts are very messy.’ Jesse’s eyebrow quirks, his face emanating a good natured curiosity. Genji has come to accept sharing every little bit of emotion, ugly or not, with his master. Jesse was a whole other thing. It was clear he needs to communicate this time, since he was determined to do it right and yet he feels out of place every time he reveals some part of himself.

Genji stops to keep some distance between them, resolutely standing up. In a spur of bravery he threads his fingers through that unruly mane. Jesse holds his hand in a light grip. Sometimes in these scenarios Jesse doesn’t react and Genji feels rejected. He then has to laugh at himself. How can he complain when Jesse doesn’t jump into his arms. He can’t help the pit that forms in his stomach though, as fair as he aspires to be. Back in Blackwatch, if Jesse got some manic need to hold him, he’d stay still as a statue, rigid and cold, with only the occasional breath giving away that he was, in fact, a living being.

Genji breathes in again, these thoughts are not in place tonight. Jesse leans into his touch slightly as if to chase them away completely. Jesse stands up, getting right into Genji’s personal space, thus instantly putting him off kilter.

‘Let’s help it a bit, huh?’ Genji is lead by their conjoined hands to turn right around. Jesse grips his other hand and sways them a bit.

‘Oh.’ Genji chuckles. Every bit of worry drained away in wake of the abrupt development. 

He missed the music coming from the TV before, surely soundtrack to something captivating he couldn’t care less about at this moment.

When Genji deliberately tries to turn again Jesse lets him and has an easy smirk on his face.

Genji knows for a fact that Jesse’s limbs ache from strain, he himself is tired to the bones. Midnight might as well be knocking on their door, yet they decide to take a moment to be frivolous.

Genji scoffs at the ridiculousness of it all and places his hands on Jesse’s shoulders lightly, utterly content to do so.

It was a bit of a role reversal, or it is a glimpse of how they were before. Genji can’t believe that he has to be comforted by Jesse. The same Jesse who came back more broken than ever.

Genji lets himself be swayed around to the music. It’s utterly unsuitable for the leisurely dance Jesse has in mind, after a moment it’s rendered into the background and they dance to a sappy dialogue neither even pays attention to.

Jesse’s steps grow wider as they stop to move in one spot and begin to move around the room slowly but steadily. Genji has to marvel at the fact that they made it past the threshold onto the balcony, but Jesse has an agency and he can be very headstrong. No stubbed toes or bruises to be found between them, well at least ones not older than an hour.

Any melody to dance to is now gone, replaced with the hum of the wind moving through leaves, sounds of the night life awakening and faint motor revving from the main street. They halt. A moment of their own.

A plane thunders somewhat close above their heads, it catches their attention and then there is an unspoken race of being the first to look down and seeing the other’s absent gaze. It’s incomprehensible to Genji. He can feel his eyes becoming glassy and wills it away quickly, blinking.

‘Come swim with me.’ It cuts Genji loose again, the laugh that comes out of him is kind of pathetic, but Jesse doesn’t budge an inch and continues to whisper folly into Genji’s ear.

‘Why?’ The look he receives is among the most critical ones that have been aimed his way.

‘What do you mean ‘why’? Why not?’ Genji presumes he understands. There is not much time, or even space, they can use to be alone. The setting of the base is an odd one too, but here? Right now it’s perfect. He assumes the fatigue fell off Jesse too, since he is fine with frollocking around the hotel room.

Even if Genji’s eyelids were heavy and falling down every single second, he couldn’t pass up the opportunity to stroll around town with Jesse.


End file.
